The Federal Government on Wednesday directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation to hand over tickets and passengers’ identification to Secure ID, the company in charge of the e-ticketing platform for the Abuja-Kaduna rail service.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who gave the directive in Abuja, stated that the move was vital to reduce crime and avoid security crises on the route.
He disclosed this when the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission presented the Full Business Case Certificates for Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri e-ticketing service to the Federal Ministry of Transportation, according to a statement issued in Abuja by his media aide, Taye Edeni.
Amaechi said the introduction of the e-ticketing platform for the Abuja-Kaduna route had increased the revenue generated by the service from about N100m to N400m monthly, successfully blocking revenue leakages.
He was quoted as saying, “The benefits of the e-ticketing is that we rose from N100m to N400m per month, which is an improvement. We have been able to do something that will eliminate leakages.
“On the issue of ticket racketeering, I have spoken to the person in charge of Abuja-Kaduna service to take over the identification process from NRC. Because what the National Assembly told me was that NRC doesn’t cross-check the ID of passengers on the tickets, and the ticketing company had wanted to do it, but they have not gotten the approval from NRC.
“So I have told the NRC to allow them do it, so that we match faces with the names. It is not all about crime alone but it is also about security. So if we release it to the technology outfit, even though we cannot eliminate 100 per cent crime and corruption, it will reduce the danger of having to run into security crises.”
The acting Director-General, ICRC, Michael Ohiani, said the concession of the e-ticketing service was for 10 years, which would generate over N140bn during the period and also create over 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
